One of Those Days
by nicolesoul
Summary: Finn and Mike discuss football, girlfriends, and a little bit of why Mike likes glee. One-shot. Spoilers for 2.01


It's been one of those days. One of those days that all Finn wants to do is go home, fall onto his bed, and sleep.

But, like most of those days, Finn can't.

Instead, he has to make it through all his classes and glee before he can even think about going home. Then he still has to get through all his homework. He'd skip it, but Rachel's been checking it to make sure he does it. Something about not wanting her boyfriend to fail out of school.

For the first time, Finn suddenly doesn't mind being off the football team. It's one less chore on his list of things to do. Although being kicked off is the main reason it's become one of those days. Without his letterman jacket, Finn's just another loser in the glee club, just another nobody.

"Watch out!" A voice brings Finn out of his head and back to the present, where Mike Chang is running him through the dance moves for a new song and Finn in running into him.

"Sorry man," Finn backs off and rubs the back of his neck, "I guess I'm not all here."

Mike shrugs, "It's cool. We can stop."

Finn smiles gratefully and the two boys sit down on the risers. Mr. Shue has the girls and Kurt singing at the piano, with Artie on the guitar, and Puck's off at football practice, leaving Finn and Mike to their own devices.

They sit in silence for a while. Mike's watching the piano and Finn stares into space, wishing he could leave. The quiet between the two isn't unusual; they've never been too close. Finn's always been with Quinn, Rachel, or Puck, and Mike is usually attached to the hip with Matt. But things have changed this year, and the minute Finn notices the silence, he feels awkward and tries to come up with something to say.

Searching his mind for something he can talk about with Mike brings Finn back to his conversation with Artie a few days ago, "So you're dating Tina?"

Mike looks at him, confused, "What?"

Finn flushes and repeats himself, but if Mike notices his embarrassment, he says nothing and instead smiles and nods, "Yeah, it's weird."

At first Finn is fine with reverting back to the silence, but the little voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like Rachel urges him to keep talking. "Why's that?" he says after a slight pause.

Mike shakes his head, "I don't know. It's like there aren't that many Asians in Lima, so I've known her practically my whole life. But we'd never even talked until glee club, and even then, it was a bare minimum. But then this summer…" Mike trails off and Finn recalls Artie's story.

He felt bad for Artie, of course, but even he knows Artie wasn't that great to Tina. And Mike is one of the nicest guys Finn knows, so he can't blame the Asian girl for her choice.

"She just makes me feel different." Mike finally concludes.

Finn looks over to the singing girls at the piano and his eyes trail from Tina over to Rachel, he gets exactly what his friend means. Mike sees him and grins.

"So you and Rachel finally got together, how's that?" He asks in a teasing voice.

Finn thinks about all the work he's had to put into his new relationship this summer and shakes his head, "Exhausting." There's a pause before Mike starts laughing at the one-word description that fits Rachel Berry just right, and Finn can't help but laugh along.

Their laughter dies down when Mercedes sends them a nasty look for interrupting the song, but for the first time in the past few days, Finn feels a little lighter and relaxes in his seat, a small smile on his face.

"No," Finn says quietly, "Rachel's really great, once you pull back all the crazy." His eyes flicker towards Quinn, "And I know where we stand."

Mike shoots him a side-glance. "You know, this is the first you've looked happy in a while."

Finn's smile fades a bit. "Well it's been a rough week."

"Oh yeah," Mike says, "that football thing."

At first, Finn is a little angry Mike only refers to the huge event that is him being kicked off the team as 'that football thing', but the anger subsides when a thought hits him. He looks over at Mike curiously, "What about you?"

Mike's brow furrows, "What about me?"

"Why aren't you at football? Coach Beist didn't kick you off too, did she?"

"Oh," Mike laughs a bit, "No, I never even went to the first practice."

Finn struggles to think back. The quiet Asian has never been too far behind Finn and Puck, with Matt at his side. He'd known Matt was gone, but it hadn't even occurred to him that Mike might be missing. He just assumed the boy was somewhere in the background.

"Why?" Finn can't understand why someone would voluntarily give up football, to give up the status it brings, especially someone in glee.

Mike shrugs, "I didn't see the point. I never really liked football; I just did it because Matt did it. And when I told Tina about how much I didn't want to go back, especially since Matt transferred, she suggested I just not go, and it seemed like a great idea."

Finn thinks about this for a moment. "But don't you miss the popularity?" he asks in a small voice.

Mike looks at Finn with determined eyes and shakes his head. Finn opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to find the words, but he can't come up with anything to say. Mike's unwavering answer leaves him quite literally speechless.

"Glee is way better than football anyway," Mike declares after their moment of silence. He stands up from his chair and stretches. Finn watches him with slight amusement as the dancer pulls a few tricks and moves, before sitting back down.

"Because you get to dance?" He asks.

Mike grins, "Because I get to be myself."

Finn suddenly gets it and that voice in his head that sound suspiciously like Rachel asks why he wasn't better friends with Mike Chang before and he decides maybe today isn't so bad after all.

Over at the piano, Mercedes is belting a solo and Rachel looks like she desperately want to intervene, most likely to point out some minor error. The only thing that seems to be keeping her quiet is Tina's heated glare.

"You know," Mike says thoughtfully, "As the two power couples of glee club, we should go on a double-date sometime."

The smile returns to Finn's face as he thinks about the idea, "That sounds fun."

* * *

A/N- I love Glee so much. And Mike Chang even more.

But this came out of that, me wondering where Mike was in the locker room, Tina and Mike's awesome Asian relationship and Finn being a dumbass.

"Ohnoezz I'm not quarterback of my school's suckass team. Everyone's going to hate me including my girlfriend even though she likes me cause I'm nice and I sing well. Even though I don't have any friends that aren't in glee club, the school's opinion of me matters!" Seriously Finn? No one cares, everyone already thinks you're a loser.

Spoilers: He is going to be back on the team though. Boo, it was in the promo pictures for the next episode.


End file.
